The invention is a system for guiding parties around an amusement park, large museum, tourist facility or other location in an efficient manner to avoid congestion and long waiting periods. Known patents do not address the issue of avoiding congestion in such a facility.
Richardson, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 1,737,520, describes a directory board for tracing a route between two predetermined points. Avoidance of congestion is not addressed in the patent.
Reynolds et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,360, describes a locator system for displaying the position of a party on a map. This patent also does not consider congestion.
Salant, U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,085, is directed to determining the most time efficient route for deliveries. The route is mapped on a screen.
Holland et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,942, is directed to a computer program for making sure that all stations of a facility are visited. The tour to be made is organized into zones, each including a set of checkpoints. Each checkpoint is labelled by a barcode. Individual checkpoints may be designated with higher or lower priority checkpoints. The tour may be monitored but avoidance of congestion is not considered as a parameter in the computer program. None of these known patents discloses a method which relies on a computer program to determine the selection of the route taken by a party during a tour of the facility.